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Glacier National Park looks to influence Blackfeet oil drilling

By Matt Volz Associated Press

Posted:
12/21/2012 10:46:06 PM MST

Updated:
12/21/2012 10:47:12 PM MST

An oil well pad sits less than 12 miles from Glacier National Park Dec. 12, 2012, outside Browning, Mont. Glacier officials are concerned about the effects of oil development on the Blackfeet reservation, and are asking for an in-depth study on the environmental impacts. Blackfeet tribal officials say they are complying with all requirements before drilling and they bristle at the suggestion they can't develop their resources safely. (AP Photo/Matt Volz).
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Matt Volz
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BROWNING, Mont. -- On the edge of the Blackfeet Indian reservation, where the Rocky Mountains rise out of the Great Plains like shark's teeth, oil exploration companies plumb the depths of the land again and again as the tribe dreams of a big strike that will lift its people out of poverty.

Not much oil has been found yet, but deep beneath the reservation is a rock formation that some believe could unleash a mini oil-and-gas boom.

That potential has raised concerns next door at iconic Glacier National Park, its 8,000-foot peaks looming over the drilling. The National Park Service warns about the potential impact on grizzly bear habitat, of rigs spoiling wilderness views and outsiders bringing invasive plants into the fragile ecosystem.

Besides repeating those worries whenever a new well is proposed, there's not much else the park service can do. Their actions, however, have left tribal officials simmering about outside interference by people who presume to know how to better develop Blackfeet land than the tribe itself.

"I don't go to your backyard and tell you what to do with it, right? I don't tell you how to drive your car, right?" said Ron Cross Guns, assistant director of the tribe's oil and gas department. "But everybody on the outside that comes to our reservation tells us what to do on our reservation."

The tension has existed since the drilling began in earnest more than three years ago, and it continues despite no significant oil production to date and a recent lull in exploration.

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There are dozens of wells drilled across the 1.5-million-acre reservation, with at least 18 within 20 miles of the park.

The park service is calling for a comprehensive, detailed study on the cumulative effects of all existing drilling to date, future drilling and what would happen if the wells start producing oil and gas.

Glacier Superintendent Chas Cartwright said he has no desire to stop reservation development, but wants to make sure it is done right.

"Our jobs as stewards of this place is to try to make sure it is a nice place 20, 30, 50, 100 years from now and that development, that would pose some serious challenges," said Cartwright, who is retiring Dec. 28.

His appeals have gone nowhere. Blackfeet oil and gas director Grinnell Day Chief said the tribe completes a well-by-well environmental assessment as required under the National Environmental Policy Act, and each assessment is approved by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"We're not required to respond to" Glacier officials, Day Chief said. "When you try to satisfy everybody you may as well stop developing your minerals. You can't satisfy everybody."

The Blackfeet point out that oil wells have been drilled for more than a century in Glacier's shadow. Two oil fields, one on the opposite side of the reservation from the park and the other near the Canadian border, were developed in the 1930s, but production has been waning for decades.

With the success of hydraulic fracturing in opening oil development 450 miles away in North Dakota's Bakken basin, exploration companies have given the Blackfeet reservation another look.

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